- This video is sponsored by Squarespace,
whether you need a domain, a website,
or an online store make your next move with Squarespace.
Is there anything more terrifying
than an omnipotent being who believes in nothing?
An all powerful villain whose only love
in his own blood soaked life
is the literal manifestation of life's absence.
A god infatuated with death, armed with the ability
to cause it on a universal scale with the snap
(snaps) of his fingers.
That's what Marvel's 1991 comic event The Infinity Gauntlet
attempted to explore with a crazy, love struck purple alien
harnessing the immeasurable power
of all six infinity gems together.
Earth's mightiest heroes, and indeed the universe's
most powerful cosmic beings as well,
are just no match for the mad titan who can bend all
of reality to fit his wishes.
I have to be honest here though,
I'm not the biggest fan of this story.
It's a little too long and convoluted for my liking,
but it does have some great artwork
and some really interesting themes to analyze.
It reveals Thanos to be a deeply conflicted,
three dimensional character.
One who, in less competent hands, could be portrayed
as oh, I don't know, random Spider-man villain
with the most unoriginal personal vehicle imaginable.
It's just a helicopter with his name written on it,
in like Helvetica.
Who is responsible for this?
They should pay for their crimes!
But, in the hands of his creator,
Jim Starlin, Thanos' stories dive
into some deep, complex territory.
For all the story problems I personally have
towards The Infinity Gauntlet event,
Starlin at least continued to craft a villain
who is sometimes sympathetic, infuriating,
and genuinely frightening.
He can flip from calm and contemplative
to lashing out with unmatched rage over the span
of just a few panels and it feels organic.
Every action and exchange is driven
by Thanos' personal philosophy of the universe.
(eery music)
How are you doing you wonderful nerds?
Scott here, and Thanos is often cited as being a nihilist.
This isn't speculation either, it's literally written
on his forehead on the opening splash page
of the second issue of The Infinity Gauntlet series.
Painting with broad strokes here,
the philosophical view of nihilism is the idea
that life has no intrinsic value or meaning.
Not only is there no grand plan for our own individual lives
but it's pointless to try and construct one as a substitute.
Life is trivial.
Thanos sees it as a burden.
In fact, this idea is taken to its logical extreme
with the mad titan who loves, worships,
and builds shrines to the illiteral embodiment
of death in the Marvel Universe.
And when I say he loves death, I mean
that he's in love with Death.
The Infinity Gauntlet comic only happens
because Thanos is trying to impress Death and win her love.
But, there's already a problem here.
Thanos' belief in nihilism faces a massive contradiction,
and to explain why we need to explore
the context surrounding Thanos' ultimate mission.
A lot of the lead up to the Infinity Gauntlet event
takes place in the pages of Silver Surfer comics.
Thanos, who was dead at this point in time
for reasons too complicated to get into,
just Google it I guess,
is brought back to life by Mistress Death to correct
what she sees as a great imbalance in the universe.
Thanos explains that with medical
and scientific breakthroughs,
lifespans have been dramatically expanded.
With humans specifically, Thanos tells the Silver Surfer
that more than half of the humans ever born on this planet
are presently alive right this moment leading Earth
to become criminally overpopulated.
With all the terrible byproducts of human life,
like pollution and nuclear waste, Thanos claims
that Earth is a world rushing on its way
to desolation and doom.
The harm we do to our plan will eventually
and inevitably be our downfall.
Even if we expand to other planets,
the universe's resources are finite.
If left unchecked, populations will grow uncontrollably,
life will continue to flourish until it doesn't,
until it can no longer support itself.
The pendulum will swing from one extreme to the other,
from an overabundance of life to no life whatsoever.
This is why Mistress Death only asks Thanos to kill half
of the populace of the universe and not all of it.
Sure, Death would enjoy a massive body count
all at once but then what?
Death needs life to continue
so there can be a constant stream
of souls for her to harvest.
Thanos was more than capable of accomplishing this feat
without the power of the infinity gauntlet on his arm,
but he wanted to wipe out populations quickly
before any heroes could intervene
and that is what sparks the Infinity Gauntlet storyline
with Thanos completing his promise to Death.
In three powerful panels, the mad titan casually snuffs out
half of the life in the entire universe with a snap
of his fingers, like they were nothing.
Death on a grand scale.
Immeasurable losses of life as if each being
was nothing more than a tiny momentary speck
within an indifferent universe.
Hold on, where have I heard that before?
- Tiny, momentary specks within an indifferent universe.
- Wait a minute, have we already had a nihilistic
Thanos movie disguised as a Doctor Strange movie?
If we peel away the rest of Kaecilius' crusty face
will we find the purple mug of the mad titan?
Probably not, although there's no way
that wasn't a fan theory written about
on some obnoxious nerd culture website with a title like,
super hype news dot website?
Plus Kaecilius has a slightly different view
of death than Thanos.
- Time is an insult, death is an insult.
- In fact, Kaecilius' whole goal is to prevent death,
to summon Dormammu and create a world of eternal life.
- This world doesn't have to die Doctor,
we can all live forever.
- That wouldn't really fly with Thanos' view of death
as something to be reverred,
besides Kaecilius was only echoing a line
said earlier in the movie by none other than-
- We are made of matter and nothing more.
You're just another tiny, momentary speck
within an indifferent universe.
- This, sorry, this is actually an incredible moment
in the Doctor Strange movie and it completely changed
my opinion of the film when I watched it again recently.
Up until this point in the film, we see scene after scene,
conversation after conversation, of Stephen Strange
being a self-absorbed, ego maniac.
He one ups and humiliates other doctors.
He believes his work to be more critical than others.
He obsesses over both maintaining his perfect record
and only undertaking impressive medical cases.
Hell, his response to the surgery performed on his hands
when he wakes up after his life altering car crash was...
- I could have done better.
- Time and time again, we're shown his arrogance
and how highly Strange thinks of himself,
but when he meets the Ancient One
he finally reveals his true existential anxiety
that deep down life is meaningless,
his life is meaningless.
The Ancient One responds with a simple,
yet kind of profound statement.
- You think too little of yourself.
- Oh, you think you see through me, do you?
Well, you don't.
- I promise this relates back to Thanos
but just indulge me for a few minutes.
The reason I'm talking about Doctor Strange,
and spoilers by the way-
I'm really bad about that.
Is because I told my friend, Professor Mark D. White,
that I wanted to make this video.
You might recognize his name from working
on books like Avengers and Philosophy,
Batman and Philosophy, Superman and Philosophy,
Watchmen and Philosophy, and a bunch of other books
that let you know the guy is a brilliant super nerd.
In his infinite kindness, he sent me an advanced copy
of Doctor Strange and Philosophy,
thinking that it would help me
write this piece about Thanos.
And he was right, one chapter even specifically talks
about Strange's journey away from his own nihilistic mindset
and it has interesting parallels to Thanos' arc.
As we saw earlier, the arrogant Stephen Strange believes
that life has no meaning, we're all just
momentary specks and all that.
As author Paul DiGiorgio writes, Strange was quote,
"Caught in the paradox of saying life had no meaning
"while also believing that his life
"had more meaning than anyone else."
This is the same mindset we see in Thanos, his ego runs wild
in the pages of The Infinity Gauntlet story.
Plus, there was also that one time
where he grabbed a helicopter and wrote his name on it
for no discernible reason.
What a cool idea!
There was even another comic that implied Thanos
was only infatuated with Death because his own namesake
literally translates to death,
so maybe he's just obsessed with himself?
And perhaps that's rather fitting.
After the Ancient One tells Strange
to drop his own ego countless time throughout the film,
she delivers this speech as her final words before she dies.
- Death is what gives life meaning,
to know your days are numbered, your time is short.
You'd think after all this time I'd be ready,
but look at me.
Stretching one moment out into a thousand
just so that I can watch the snow.
- Death is what gives life meaning,
and in Thanos' case, this is literal.
Death is the being who brought him back
and imbued his life with meaning and Thanos knows this.
He knew this before he was even raised from the dead.
He understood that his life would only be restored
under the condition that he would fulfill
Death's one and only request.
How exactly can that mix with his nihilistic views?
How can he believe that life has no meaning
when Thanos himself was given life explicitly
so he could fulfill a specific role in the universe?
Now, I wanna be clear here.
I'm not saying that this logical inconsistency
with Thanos' thinking is bad, it's not.
If Thanos was strict nihilist who wanted
to end life simply because he didn't see the value in it,
then he'd be kind of a boring character in my opinion.
These contradictions, the conflicted mindset
of the mad titan, is what transforms him
from yet another cookie cutter villain
to one who actually has depth.
He's flawed, he's paranoid, he acts inconsistently out
of love for someone who consistently scorns him,
and he grows from it.
In the excellent, albeit not actually canon,
mini-series Marvel Universe The End,
Thanos realizes an outcome
where he makes the entire universe blink out of existence.
Not just the sentient life in it
but the stars, planets, everything.
At first, he basks in the glory of his triumph,
the infinite black void is a testament
to the power of Thanos.
But he quickly learns that ruling over absolute nothingness
might be a secure empire, sure,
but without life what would be its value?
Value, it took Thanos swallowing up the entirety
of all that is to realize
that life does have inherent value.
He should know, he's the prime example.
Thanos was resurrected to kill half
of the population of the universe.
Not for fun, but for a purpose,
to protect life from the dangers it creates.
Fittingly, with our comparison to Doctor Strange earlier,
Thanos describes his own role as that of a doctor
cutting away the cancer to save the patient.
Yet, when he finally ends all life except himself,
he repeats this imagery but realizes that it is he
who is the cancer that must be eradicated from the universe.
In one final act, Thanos becomes
that healer he always thought he was.
He restores every inch of the Marvel Universe
with one exception, himself.
Thanos, the ultimate nihilist, sacrifices himself
to restore all other life in the universe.
Thanos could have comfortably lived forever
in the vast emptiness of the existence that he created,
but while a life that lasts forever may be significant,
a life that ends is more meaningful.
As author George A. Dunn beautifully writes,
"Impermanence is a feature, not a bug, of human existence."
And for all of Thanos' power, this conflicted nihilist
is actually pretty human after all.
(sad piano music)
(snaps)
I wanna give a huge thanks to Squarespace
for sponsoring this video and for also being super patient
with me as I changed topics the last minute
because I got inspired to talk about Thanos.
Squarespace is the best way, the easiest way,
to build a website.
I've used Squarespace for a bunch of my different projects.
For the book that I'm writing, realoriginsbook.com,
that was built on Squarespace.
I also use it for my own personal website.
They've got these beautiful templates
that are also highly customizable,
so you're website doesn't have to look like everyone else's.
You can really dive in there and make it your own.
In fact, just this year they added eight new templates
to really get your creative juices going
on whatever project you're working on.
In fact, just because Squarespace loves you wonderful nerds
they're gonna help you get started right away,
even easier, even faster, even better.
Just head on over to Squarespace.com, start your free trial.
Start experimenting and building there
and when you're ready to check out,
when you're ready to launch your next big project,
head on over to Squarespace.com/NerdSync
and save 10% off of your first purchase
of a website or a domain.
So, if you're ready to launch your new business,
go out there and make it.
And get started with Squarespace.
And of course, I wanna give a huge shout out
to our Patrons for supporting these videos that we make,
over at Patreon.com/NerdSync.
Especially Cristoffer Lange, Everett Parrott,
and Sonali Manka for giving more money
than you should, to be honest.
I love you guys, I will never understand you,
but I really do appreciate it (laughs).
If you want your name here on this ever growing wall
of beautiful people, head on over to Patreon.com/NerdSync.
Click or tap right here for a video
that YouTube's mysterious algorithm thinks
that you'll enjoy.
I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure it's great.
And if this is your first time hanging out with us here
at NerdSync, hit that big sexy subscribe button,
we'd love to have you around.
My name is Scott, reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.
Did I do it?